'Evil Elmo' performer says bad rap isn't justified

By Vivian Ho |
March 5, 2014
| Updated: March 6, 2014 8:35am

50-year-old Dan Sandler puts on his Elmo costume in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

Above, park volunteer Zeon Kitchner poses for a picture with a costumed Sandler.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

Left, Sandler counts the money he has made by having his picture taken with passersby.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

Dan Sandler walks past a restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf with his Elmo costume on his back. Merchants say business declines when Sandler is out front.

Photo By Sam Wolson / Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler peeks out from under his Elmo costume while waiting for tourists to pass by in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler holds his Elmo costume in a plastic bag on his back in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandler's has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

Dan Sandler's Elmo costume sits in a plastic bag on the ground in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandler's has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler, dressed as Elmo, poses for a photo with a group of Students from Berkeley High, in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler waits for tourists to pass by in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler takes a break from posing for photos with tourist dressed as Elmo in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

Photo By Sam Wolson / Special to the Chronicle

50-year-old Dan Sandler takes a break from posing for photos with tourists dressed as Elmo in Fisherman's Wharf on March 5th 2014. Sandlers has been known to go on various heated controversial rants while wearing the costume.

More about 'Evil Elmo'

Elmo lay crumpled in a plastic bag at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

Dan Sandler, the street performer who has become notorious for wearing the furry red costume while posing for photos with children and tourists, decided to forgo the outfit Wednesday - at least while defending himself against accusations that his troubled past made him unfit to depict the beloved "Sesame Street" character.

Yes, Sandler said in an interview with The Chronicle, he once ran a pornographic website in Cambodia called Welcome to Rape Camp.

Yes, he recently spent time in jail for trying to extort $2 million out of the Girl Scouts of America. And yes, he made anti-Semitic remarks that caused a stir in New York's Central Park.

Making an unfair leap

But Sandler said distressed merchants and street kids at the wharf are making an unfair leap - that he is a child predator. He said he should be allowed to make a buck without the harassment he has experienced since his return to San Francisco a few weeks ago.

"People are being told lies about me," said Sandler, who is 50 and homeless. "I'm really sick of it. I'm just trying to make a living."

Sandler earned the nicknames "Evil Elmo" and "Bad Elmo" for his sometimes aggressive tactics in drumming up money in exchange for photos with him in costume. After some of his profanity-laced, anti-Semitic rants were videotaped, he became an Internet sensation.

Now, wherever he goes, his reputation follows him. And a lot of people don't want him around, though police officials said there is little they can do to stop him from employing his shtick.

But there's more to the story, Sandler explained Wednesday.

He said he launched the "bondage" website in Cambodia as a way to help women - all of them adults, he said - who "only knew how to make money through prostitution." He said he figured an Internet operation was safer for the women than sex with strangers.

He said the "extreme" theme of sexual assault was necessary because he "felt like the women I had weren't attractive enough" for regular pornography.

"I was just trying to help these women," he said. "Calling me a child molester for running a porn site is like calling a gay person a pedophile for being gay."

Bad for business

Such talk, though, doesn't ease the fears of many wharf merchants and visitors. They say Sandler's well-documented past simply doesn't mix with the gimmick he has brought to New York, San Francisco and other places - attracting children to him for photos.

"We're not a supporter of him being here," said Paul Prestige, a waiter at Pompeii Grotto. "None of us are."

"He goes on rants and raves and accuses people of conspiracy theories," said Troy Campbell, the executive director of the Fisherman's Wharf Community Benefits District. "He frightens visitors and locals. Whatever business he's in front of has a horrible day. Their business suffers because he's so off-putting and weird and people just avoid him."

Some self-identified street kids at the wharf are so against Sandler's presence that they've begun a campaign of "street justice." Police said Sandler was threatened by four people on Sunday, and then harassed again later that day by another young man who followed him holding a sign reading "Rape-O."

Hidden motivation?

Sandler said his antagonists are hiding their real motivation - retaliation for his activism against pharmaceutical companies and billionaire Michael Milken's foray into K-12 education. He believes he is the victim of a well-organized smear campaign.

His anti-Semitic rants, he said, were directed only at Milken. Sandler said he doesn't hate Jews - and is, in fact, Jewish.

Sandler, who was released from jail in January following his sentence in the Girl Scouts case, said he likes dressing up as Elmo in San Francisco because there's less competition than in New York or Las Vegas. He said he's never aggressive, though he was cited by police for aggressive panhandling on Sunday.

He said he hopes to stay in San Francisco until Thanksgiving, and then head back to Hawaii and, maybe, check out Colorado and Washington, D.C., as well.

"I just want people to leave me alone," he said. "I just want to do my Elmo stuff."